Chapter 143: The End of Childhood (2)

Soyak had always been a strange child.

At least, that was how Cheonhwa saw her.

She always acted as though she were carrying some enormous burden.

Perhaps she truly had gone through something painful, but still...

Even though she had been born with such overwhelming strength and such distant, unfathomable talent.

Maybe that was why she always looked so pitiful.

Jealousy?

Things like that had long since vanished.

The more Cheonhwa spent day after day with Soyak...

The more impossible it became to envy her.

More than anything, there were the sounds of pain she made every night.

Whatever terrible dreams she had, she sobbed every time she slept.

Soyak had no idea at all, but...

Whenever that happened, Cheonhwa would quietly pat Soyak’s back.

The end of childhood.

The convenient label of being a child would one day fall away.

But Soyak looked as though...

The scab had fallen before the wound had even healed, leaving only a scar behind.

“Cheon Soyak.”

Soyak tilted her head and looked back at Cheonhwa.

Because Cheonhwa’s voice was different from usual.

Cheonhwa was always playful, innocent, or, if not that, bright and cheerful.

“Yes, Sister.”

“You’re my junior sister. So if things are hard, talk to me anytime.”

Soyak’s eyes went round.

Then she gave a faint laugh and nodded.

“I will.”

“Don’t just say that! If you ever feel like you can’t endure it, you have to tell me. Understand?”

“Of course. Don’t worry.”

Cheonhwa hesitated for a moment, then hugged Soyak tightly.

Soyak patted Cheonhwa’s back in return.

“Don’t pat me! I’m your Sister. I’m supposed to pat you.”

“Ah... is that so?”

“That’s how it is, so just stay still and let me hug you.”

When Soyak let her arms drop limply, only then did Cheonhwa smile in satisfaction and pat Soyak’s back.

She wants to act like an older sister.

That was how Soyak understood it.

It was not an incorrect understanding.

Cheonhwa owed Soyak a great deal in her heart.

She wanted to repay that, even if only like this.

Whether that was a debt that could be repaid, Soyak did not know...

But still, as her Sister, Cheonhwa probably did not want to live forever leaning on her junior sister.

Going along with that sort of thing could also be called a relationship between fellow disciples.

Soyak gladly decided to become Cheonhwa’s youngest junior sister.

There was no need to show only a sturdy face even to her allies.

*****

Jeongyang eventually went in to sleep.

The Young Cult Leader, wearing Myeongjeok’s body, looked at the darkened Red Tile Pavilion and smiled thinly.

“What a fool.”

Drawing out Myeongjeok’s memories, he unfolded lightness arts according to the principles of Lightness Arts.

It was a little more inefficient than the original, but...

His steps were gradually giving off the tyrannical bearing of a monarch.

However, it was the middle of the night anyway.

No one saw him, and even if they did, what could they say?

The flow of internal energy and the form of his steps were Lightness Arts itself.

They would only feel that something was a little strange.

And so the Young Cult Leader...

Headed for the underground lightning prison beneath South Peak.

To the place where his own fragment had originally been confined.

Lightly setting foot on the slope beneath South Peak, he leisurely looked around.

Naturally, no one was there.

Small footprints were still stamped into the ground.

They were Cheon Soyak’s.

“The Heavenly Killing Star, is it...”

He could not help becoming curious.

Perhaps, if the Heavenly Demon had passed away, he would have tried to awaken that child as the new Heavenly Demon.

He knew it was not something that could be done through effort...

But he could at least try.

However, the Heavenly Demon he served had not yet died.

“I will have to look into her.”

Depending on what sort of past and nature she had, she might instead become their ally.

Like the Flame-Saber Emperor.

Had he not ultimately been persuaded by the Left Luminary Guardian?

The Martial Alliance had likely been thrown into chaos over that.

Now that the Left Luminary Guardian had moved openly, there would be no fool who thought the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains would remain quiet.

Rather, they were more likely to find the current silence strange and feel uneasy.

Their vigilance toward the Demonic Cult would be raised to its utmost.

But the Young Cult Leader had no intention of doing anything yet.

The right moment did not come so boldly.

The true moment was the time when no one was watching him.

War broke out across the night and dawn, and history was born then as well.

When the rumor that the Demonic Cult was stirring was dismissed as nonsense.

When people began saying, as the accepted opinion, that they had known it all along and someone must simply have seen wrong.

That would be the true time to raise the torch and set the world aflame.

“To do that, I must lay the bait first.”

He slowly entered the underground lightning prison where he had once been.

To the place where Eunbyeok’s corpse, transformed into a Demonic Beast, lay.

A Demonic Beast’s corpse was meant to be burned.

Who knew how much time had passed?

He gathered every last trace of Demonic Energy that had soaked deep into the cave walls and remained there, not missing a single speck, into his hand.

Something like a pitch-black bead floated above his palm.

Long ago, why had humans begun burying corpses in the ground?

According to common sense, it was to prevent the spread of disease caused by decay.

As an idea, however...

It meant, Do not rise again.

If one shut the coffin, nailed it closed, and buried it deep in the earth, the dead could not rise again.

It could be interpreted as a way to keep the dead from returning to this world.

“So you should have given him a proper funeral.”

Even if he had been a disciple used and discarded as a consumable.

Should his death really have been left abandoned like this?

Thinking that, the Young Cult Leader smiled brightly.

It was not exactly something a man of the Demonic Cult had the right to point out, but...

Thanks to it, the Young Cult Leader had obtained an amusing toy.

A toy with which he could shake both Mount Hua and its Sect Leader.

Eunbyeok’s corpse lay cold, split in half.

The Young Cult Leader lowered one knee to the ground and infused his body with the condensed Demonic Energy.

Demonic Energy was power that violated providence and reason, bringing chaos to all things.

That was why even a mere rat, unable to die, regenerated grotesquely and suffered forever.

How could a human be any different?

“Rise.”

From the corpse split in two, bundles of blood vessels burst out, tangled together, and pulled.

The corpse was joining back together.

*****

The next morning at Flower-Haze Hall.

The moment Soyak stepped out into the corridor, she had the strange experience of the entire second floor going silent.

All her Brothers were staring at her.

Holding their breath.

“...Why?”

But no answer came back.

Everyone simply glanced at Soyak, watched her reaction, and avoided her.

In the middle of it all, Cheonjeong approached with a deep sigh.

“Because of last night.”

“Last night?”

“Yes. Last night, when you sparred with Master Eun Jeong.”

She had known that everyone usually paid attention to her.

Because she was one of only two girls among the third-generation disciples?

No, that was probably not it.

She was not particularly sociable, and aside from her own fellow disciples, she had barely exchanged words with anyone.

Then there was only one answer.

Every martial artist was jealous of someone more talented than themselves.

And when that jealousy crossed a certain line, one where catching up was no longer possible...

Jealousy turned into admiration.

Soyak read admiration in the eyes of the Brothers looking at her.

And a fragment of misery as well.

But that was not an inner demon for her to consider on their behalf.

Each person had to govern such things for themselves.

“...Is that so?”

“Is that all?”

“What else am I supposed to say? They must all be working just as hard as I am.”

Soyak lightly bowed her head to the Brothers gathered there watching her, then turned and went down to the first floor.

Cheonjeong gave a faint laugh and followed after her.

“If you keep that up, they’ll dislike you, Soyak.”

“Whether it is dislike or admiration, I am bound to receive it anyway. Didn’t everyone watch last night’s spar from beginning to end?”

“That is true.”

“And besides, I already sparred with Namgung Seon. Even after that... unless the other third-generation Brothers are deaf, they must have heard all sorts of stories... so even if I start saying pleasant things now, when I’m not even good at them, their preconceptions won’t change.”

Soyak answered quietly as she took out her shoes and put them on.

Until Cheonjeong, who had been listening, burst into laughter.

At the sound of laughter behind her, Soyak narrowed her eyes and looked back.

“Why are you laughing?”

“You saying you can’t say pleasant things is the greatest joke I have ever heard. You were fluently pouring out those ‘pleasant things’ just now.”

“...You seem to be enjoying teasing me very much.”

“Teasing my cute junior sister is always fun. You’ll understand when you have a junior brother or junior sister of your own.”

Still narrowing her eyes, Soyak abruptly turned away.

Then she headed first toward the training ground and shot back,

“No. I do not play such pranks. Therefore, I will not understand.”

At those “pleasant words,” Cheonjeong burst into laughter again.

But that laughter did not last long.

Because Soyak’s expression hardened when she saw someone standing in front of Flower-Haze Hall.

“...Master Eunbyeok?”